Berlinale Announces First Wave of 2015 Lineup

Berlinale Announces First Wave of 2015 Lineup

The 2015 Berlinale runs February 5-15. The first wave of titles includes five feature-length films and two shorter ones spanning many distinct genres and styles.

“The Bunker” (dir. Nikias Chryssos) “creates a world of its own, somewhere between an absurd comedy, a horror film, a melodrama and a B movie… A young student seeks quiet and solitude to focus on an important work but ends up as the teacher of a peculiar boy who is home-schooled by his parents in an isolated bunker mansion.”

“Spiderwebhouse” (dir. Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt) “turns a social drama into a modern, black-and-white fairy-tale that hovers on the line between reality and childlike fantasy. A single mother (Sylvie Testud) who fails to live up to the role model of a loving and caring mother, and so disappears for a time, triggers a tale about the strong bond that develops between her three left-behind children.”

“HomeSick” (dir. Jakob M. Erwa), “the second full-length feature in the programme, combines, among other things, some of the elements of a thriller with impressionistic arthouse cinema.” Fandor says “It’s the story of an ambitious student cellist who, invited to a competition in Moscow, begins to senses the tension within her affecting her everyday life.”

“Wanja” (dir. Carolina Hellsgård). “Anne Ratte-Polle plays a 40-year-old woman who after years in prison is suddenly thrown back into life and then – far removed from crime and drugs – seeks a new life for herself. Carolina Hellsgård has presented her short films at many international festivals, where they have won a number of prizes as well. Wanja is her full-length feature debut.”

“Sibylle” (dir. Michael Krummenacher) “is a mix of drama, mystery, psychological thriller and horror film.” In this film, “Sibylle, a pragmatic architect, mother and wife, witnesses a fatal accident of a woman her age while on vacation in Italy. Devastated by this the perception of her life and her family starts to change. Something inside of her has been set in motion that seems to endanger everything which she has defined herself by…”

“A Perfect Place” (dir. Anatol Schuster) “Anatol Schuster’s graduation film examines how places and spaces have lives of their own. This is a topic that pervades many of the invited films and is often reflected in their titles,” including “The Bunker” and “HomeSick” and “Spiderwebhouse.”

“I Remember” (dir. Janna Ji Wonders) “Musician and filmmaker Janni Ji Wonders found inspiration for her film in both a short story written by Zoran Drvenkar and a piece by singer-songwriter Boo Hewerdine, titled ‘I remember.’ She has relocated the song’s nostalgic atmosphere to Bolinas and Bodega Bay, the costal towns in California where she grew up.”